LAT Op-Ed: Bloomberg is not the candidate to take on Trump. Here's why

[Devil Child]

This should be a happy time for former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Right now, his ads are drowning the airwaves in the 14 states that will vote on Super Tuesday, March 3, while in most of those states, the campaigns of his non-billionaire opponents for the Democrats’ presidential nod have barely begun.

As the campaign rolls on, however, Democratic voters will learn more about Bloomberg’s actual record. The mass incarceration in black and brown communities that resulted from police practices he put in place as mayor; the preemptive arrests he authorized of people who sought to protest the 2004 Republican convention in New York (for which the city had to pay hefty fines for false arrests); his defense of Wall Street bankers in the wake of the 2008 financial panic (he termed the fines levied against banks for misconduct “outrageous”) — these are just some of the many Bloomberg policies and positions that should give Democrats pause.

snip...

It’s hard to imagine a Democrat less able to win working-class votes — those of young black and Latino workers, and those of the white workers who swung the 2016 election to Trump. Minority voters are unlikely to look kindly on his mayoral record: intensifying stop-and-frisk, vetoing legislation that banned predatory lenders from doing business with the city, and opposing city legislation to raise the living wage. Now that he’s running for president he says he backs a minimum wage hike, but in 2014, he told Fox News, “I’ve always thought that this impetus to raise the minimum wage is one of the most misguided things we can do.”

For those white workers who pushed Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania into Trump’s column, Bloomberg is the personification of everything they can’t abide. On one hand, he’s perhaps America’s biggest-spending proponent of gun control and a prominent advocate for other socially liberal positions — those the right denigrates as heralding “the nanny state.” On the other, he’s been a constant advocate for deepening economic globalization, for the very trade deals many American workers believed decimated manufacturing here. To this very day, he remains, with Henry Kissinger, the American public figure most supportive of the Chinese regime.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-02-18/op-ed-bloomberg-is-not-the-candidate-to-take-on-trump-heres-why

Good analysis highlighting the many concerning issues that a Bloomberg nomination would bring.

[Turin_C3PO]

1. Good column.

It touches on all the reasons I think he’d be a bad choice for Democrats.

[Devil Child]

3. I agree Turin_C3PO!

I appreciated the details the author provided on Bloomberg's dealings with China. Bloomberg brings far to much baggage and represents the worst possible option to me in defeating Trump.

[Nanjeanne]

12. And until he releases his taxes we have no idea how indebted he is to China!

[thesquanderer]

9. Yes... and specifically his lack of any obvious appeal to the rust belt blue collar voters...

...or are the votes we MOST need to win.

Biden, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar would all seem to have more appeal there than he does.

[ace3csusm]

2. So how did the guy in office now get the job

People their is no prefect candidate ... get off high horse and stop knocking down every candidate ... If you want what we have now for 4 more years keep at it...Bloomberg, Biden, etc would be Million % better...support your candidate dont knock down the others...

[ancianita]

5. I'm pretty sure people here are looking at which electable candidate best represents Americans.

There's no high horsey talk about Bloomberg's source of his money, his past record, his lack of town hall connection to voters, his sweeping his way past Democrats who have worked much harder and longer to get Americans to trust Democratic Party leaders. Money shouldn't simply sweep all that aside, since one can only think it's money, since the messaging he brings in no way reflects his last 20 years of pro-corporate behavior toward Americans.

It's the primary. Unity need not be uniformity. People here can unpack candidates all they want.

[ace3csusm]

14. I get it being a democratic is hard we have morals and like to hold who we supoort to same

but the political area has changed, this is why we are in the position we are in today...Republicans in past would have never elected trump... they swallowed their pride and look what they got now...a major of them may not like him but they are getting what they want...if we want to stop the bleeding we have to do the same... we are coming to fights with ideas their bring guns and knives.

[Garrett78]

4. Bloomberg equals record low Dem turnout and record high 3rd party voting

Only a fraction of the population knows, at this time, how awful Bloomberg is. By November, most people would be thoroughly disgusted.

[ancianita]

6. Entirely possible.

[totodeinhere]

7. If electability is going to be our litmus test then Bloomberg is not our candidate.

The left of the party which mostly comprises the party's most passionate base will not accept Bloomberg. And without the base our candidate loses. Yes Bloomberg is popular at DU. His strongest support comes from older people and DU skews old, but DU does not represent the Democratic Party.

[customerserviceguy]

8. Thanks for posting that

I wonder when it going to sink in.

[Devil Child]

11. Hopefully soon before it's too late

[customerserviceguy]

13. I'm hoping for tomorrow night's debate

Everyone up there will be trying to tear down Bloomberg, and that may include the moderators, even though they risk getting less in Bloomie ad buys on their network.

[Rstrstx]

10. So let me get this straight....

They're saying the young people of color and white workers who swung the election to Trump won't vote for Bloomberg because he's everything they can't abide???!!! Give me a break, they voted for Donald F!cking Trump, they clearly don't care about the things listed in this article.